Symbiotic crypto airdrop: how to be eligible?

Symbiotic is a restaking protocol, officially launched on June 11, that will very likely release a crypto airdrop by the end of the summer to all early

A new crypto airdrop is on the horizon as Symbiotic, a restaking protocol, prepares to launch with a massive airdrop for early adopters. Here's how to qualify and what to expect.

Symbiotic Launches With Early Airdrop Plans

Restaking protocols have become a hot topic in the crypto space, with several new projects emerging to offer users the chance to earn rewards for staking their already-staked assets. Now, one of the latest protocols to join the scene is Symbiotic, which is set to launch with plans for an early crypto airdrop.

According to the official announcement, Symbiotic will be launching on June 11, and early users who deposit assets on the platform will be in line to receive an airdrop of the Symbiotic token later this year. The project has launched an incentive campaign, where users can earn points by staking assets such as wstETH, cbETH, wBETH, rETH, mETH, swETH, sfrxETH, and ETHX. These points will later be used to determine airdrop allocations.

After 2 days from its inauguration, the platform has already achieved excellent milestones bringing the TVL of 240 million dollars and reaching the maximum cap of deposits set in this first phase.

To be eligible for the airdrop, users will need to deposit at least 1 of the specified assets into Symbiotic. The platform will continue accepting new deposits, and the maximum deposit caps will be gradually increased over time. However, it's important to note that these caps are currently quite low, and early users who wish to maximize their airdrop earnings should consider using alternative strategies.

One such strategy is to utilize secondary LRT infrastructures, such as Mellow Protocol, which is backed by Lido Finance and CyberFund. Mellow offers 1 million Symbiotic Points for restakers of stETH, wstETH, WETH, and ETH, with a distribution rate of 1 point per hour for each ether or equivalent locked, in addition to the same share of Mellow Points that will be converted into the platform’s upcoming governance token.

Each pool is supported by a curator, chosen from Steakhouse Finance, Re7Labs, Mev Capital, and P2P.org, each tasked with managing their own vault and improving the Symbiotic ecosystem. For each pool, the APR is equal to 3.36%, in line with other restaking platforms. Hurry up because even here there are cap limits: the early bird farms better!

Keep in mind that the airdrop of the Symbiotic token, while not guaranteed, will most likely be one of the best around in terms of potential profit, as the project is funded by Paradigm, which is known for being the “VC of airdrops” having supported in the past the launches of the tokens of Uniswap, Blur, DyDx, Optimism, Opensea, and Ribbon Finance.

Furthermore, in the dashboard of the Symbiotic website, we can already notice the specific “delegate” section (currently unavailable) which will be used, as it happens on the EigeLayer site, to manage the delegation of stakes to various node operators, fueling a AVS ecosystem.

Symbiotic vs. Eigenlayer in the Restaking Race

Symbiotic presents itself as the direct competitor of the leading platform in the field of restaking EigenLayer, with a very similar infrastructure but at the same time different in terms of on-chain architecture. The challenge between the two top protocols will also be played partly on the airdrop level.

In this regard, Symbiotic could release its own crypto through airdrop, before the TGE of the token EIGEN set for September 30, taking advantage of the time factor. Indicatively this could arrive by the end of the summer.

From a technical point of view, Symbiotic stands out mainly for its modular design and its flexibility, offering multi-asset support to all users: the platform indeed plans to accept any direct deposits of ERC-20 tokens, while EigenLayer only supports deposits in ETH and its derivatives (if you use something else, it is actually converted to ETH on EigenLayer).

Additionally, the first one allows setting customizable parameters such as collateral activities, node operators, rewards, and slashing mechanisms. Then, it uses immutable contracts, meaning non-upgradable, reducing related risks of governance but offering less malleability in community decisions.

In general Symbiotic uses a trustless approach, aiming for an open, decentralized, and accessible ecosystem for everyone.

EigenLayer, instead, while performing the same tasks as Symbiotic, leverages a more established approach, focusing on the security of Ethereum stakers to support various dApps (AVS).

The management of protocol no. 1 in the restaking sector, which boasts a TVL of 18.6 billion dollars, is rather centralized with EigenLayer itself managing the delegation to node operators, while navigating a dynamic environment that allows developers to use the aggregated ETH security to launch new protocols and applications